The present invention relates to a board game apparatus and particularly to a board game apparatus having a playing surface of the type which includes outermost edges defining the range of movement of the playing pieces, the surface providing the area on which the playing pieces (and other apparatus used to play a game) may be placed and/or moved.
The invention more particularly relates to a board game apparatus having a playing surface whose dimensions can be changed in order to suit the requirements of a particular game, such as the addition of extra players, thereby seeking to replace the traditional, square (often chequered) or rectangular games boards in current use.
The term xe2x80x9cboardxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9clayoutxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cplaying surfacexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cplaying areaxe2x80x9d as used interchangeably herein are intended to indicate the major plain, patterned, illustrated or otherwise ornamented surface on which a game is played. The terms are not intended to be used in a limiting manner and no such interpretation is to be taken or inferred.
The xe2x80x9cplaying surfacexe2x80x9d need not be limited to a physical embodiment and the corresponding representations of the playing surface on a television or computer screen are included within the intended scope of the invention.
Square game boards (particularly square, chequered boards) are common and even board games that are of a distinctive design are often contained within the confines of a folding square board. Making a games board that is xe2x80x9cdifferentxe2x80x9d is often the single most important factor in determining the success or otherwise of a new board game.
The square board is universally known and the established board format of many traditional board games for two players. The chequered board is a most common variant but other patterns and surface ornamentations are known. Of these traditional games many, particularly two player games such as chess, checkers and backgammon are inevitably limited by the surface on which these games are played. Even board games that do not rely on the checkerboard often use a folding square board on which to play the game. Attempts at changing the board format of two player board games in order to accommodate additional players are well know. The exposition below necessarily concentrates on the efforts made to adapt the games of chess, checkers and backgammon in this fashion. However, each idea proposes a solution only to one associated problem. To date there has been no universal system for the general adaptation of two player boards to boards suitable for games between two or more players.
Three and four player versions of board games traditionally played by two people (such as chess and draughts) are known. However, a different board must be purchased for each eventuality (that is, two, three or four players), a disincentive to those people who may only wish to purchase one board. The alternative, to buy a larger board accommodating greater numbers of players, has its drawbacks. Such boards are often cumbersome and, if fewer than the maximum number sit down to play, may require asymmetric starting positions (where one or other player has a decisive advantage) or protracted play in view of the larger area to be covered. Such boards may also require the use of non-traditional playing pieces and/or associated rules far removed from the original game it seeks to emulate.
In order to add variety to games like chess and checkers numerous adaptations to the traditional chequered board have been proposed. There have been vertical boards, three-dimensional boards, and a variety of folding and boxed arrangements. Of background relevance to the disclosure of the present invention, U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,362 (Fisher, 1979) proposes a chess board made of cubes having on each face a printed chess piece or coloured square. During the course of a game, the cubes are orientated in a manner which places the intended piece or empty square uppermost. U.S. Pat. No. 3,406,975 (Berger, 1968) divides the chessboard into sections and provided additional sections on which captured pieces are optionally placed in their respective starting positions to facilitate faster game piece set up in subsequent games. U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,476 (Eplett, 1987) divides the chessboard into quadrants which, using squares of a different height, are relocatable to form xe2x80x98mountainxe2x80x99 and xe2x80x98valleyxe2x80x99 landscapes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,840 (Johnson, Jr., 1991) envisages a more complex game board building apparatus comprising interlocking square columns which are constructed to various heights thereby allowing a wide variety of xe2x80x98contouredxe2x80x99 game surfaces to be assembled.
In the above disclosures, the rules of chess remain unchanged and whether each innovation actually adds to the enjoyment of the game or merely detracts therefrom remains a matter of opinion. More notable modifications to the chequered board require significant departures from the rules of chess thereby spawning ideas for new games. U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,326 (Bialek) employs a die to introduce the element of chance. U.S. Pat. No. 1,955,795 (Ekbom, 1934) divides the playing surface into component rows which are swappable. U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,969 (Williams, Jr., 1990) describes a board in which the squares themselves can be removed.
Many chessboards comprising two or more playing surfaces have come into existence. U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,751 (Ching, 1991) proposes a pyramidal chess-like game whilst U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,060 (Riuhiluoma et al., 1985) envisages a two-tier board and xe2x80x98obstructedxe2x80x99 squares. The chequered board itself has also been xe2x80x98disassembledxe2x80x99 and used as the basis of many challenging puzzles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,388 (Wood, et al., 1999) uses a checkerboard on each side of a puzzle that must be constructed from component polyminoes.
Despite all this endeavour, few ideas have approached the enduring popularity of chess in its purest form. Chess is complex enough without making it more so and variety already exists in the many offshoots of the game, mainly those based on new sets of rules (such as games that start with fewer pieces). Most devotees are not persuaded by games that purport to be chess but clearly are not. There is an exception, however, in that multiple-player chess and checkers continue to xe2x80x98tweakxe2x80x99 the interest of players and new boards designed to accommodate more than two players are numerous. David Pritchard""s Encyclopedia of Chess Variants lists thirty-one versions of three-player chess alone, the earliest of which dates back to 1765.
Players accept that the board and certain elements of the rules of the game must be modified to accommodate extra participants but wish for the necessary changes to be as unobtrusive to the spirit of the original game as possible. Board games that are far removed from recognisable chess include U.S. D. 55,455 (Day, 1920) which extends the square chequered playing field on each side by a depth of three squares to form a xe2x80x98crossxe2x80x99 shape. U.S. Pat. No. 694,509 (Winckfield, 1902) uses a similar board shape with rules akin to checkers. U.S. Pat. No. 511,306 (Moore, 1898) makes some attempt to keep to the rules of chess and checkers. The board, which requires assembly, employs four xe2x80x9ctongue and groovexe2x80x9d extensions (one on each side of a checkerboard) to convert it into a board for three and four players. U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,666 (Adams, 1992), U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,414 (Stephens, et al., 1994), U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,849 (Navin, 1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,762 (Wearley, 1996), U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,399 (Kifer, 2000) and others all employ very similar boards with each game version being distinguished from the other by subtle rule changes.
All of the boards referred to above suffer from being overly large. Furthermore, the central 8xc3x978 square arena remained, for the most part, unaltered and at the start of play, chess pieces were placed adjacent to one another at right angles. This required the pieces to interact with one another quite unnaturally. As the number of players round the board increased so too did the playing area but in a manner which was disproportionate to the number of players. Games have been lengthy as a consequence. A further problem of the xe2x80x98crossxe2x80x99 shape is that, when used by three players, the relative starting positions are only symmetrical in one direction thus affording one or other player an advantage in space and time during a game. Perhaps the most insuperable problem is the question of how a pawn might move xe2x80x98forwardxe2x80x99 in a game with three or four players. Moore attempted to solve this by having the pawn move one square orthogonally in any direction once in the middle of the board, thereby changing the whole character of the game.
Considerations such as those above have ensured that such hybrid games have not won general approval amongst chess purists. However, further attempts have been made to refine the multiple-player board in order to overcome these problems particularly in relation to three-player games. In 1843, Tesche proposed an irregularly shaped checkerboard in which the starting position of two of the three players was xe2x80x98staggeredxe2x80x99. Attempts at making the three-player board more symmetrical followed. A three-player game in U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,302 (Rewega, 1992) and a multi-player game in U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,410 (Hunt, 1996) both use a board comprised of hexagons (of which there are many examples) and employed three Bishops per side. Henry Self""s 1895 version arranged three square chequered boards around an equilateral, triangular-shaped xe2x80x98voidxe2x80x99. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,741 (Buijtendorp, 1981), there is likewise arranged three sides of a board at 120xc2x0 to each other, xe2x80x98part-fillingxe2x80x99 the void in the middle of the board by expanding the chequered pattern using concentric arcs. U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,488 (Kimball, 1993) discloses a part-filled void with elongated xe2x80x98squaresxe2x80x99, whilst U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,759 (Anderson et al, 1987) employs hexagons in the middle of the board.
The principle of distorting the playing surface xe2x80x98squaresxe2x80x99 in order to accommodate the new board shapes and allow for more natural play became established in the 1980""s, especially for three-player boards. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,254 (Leeds, 1980) a xe2x80x98double chess boardxe2x80x99 was designed using concentric arcs and contained an octagonal void in the centre through which Queens and Bishops could pass xe2x80x98choosingxe2x80x99 one of two alternate routes. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,193 (Houman, 1999) a similar board shape is disclosed but the game used the device of placing King and Queen on the same square at the commencement of play so reducing the length of that side to seven xe2x80x98squaresxe2x80x99.
Despite the huge array of alternative designs not one is able to offer concurrent solutions to the three problems of symmetry, conservation of playing area and player number adaptability. Add more players and the board becomes too largexe2x80x94reduce the size of the playing area and the symmetry is lostxe2x80x94design a symmetrical board and only a set number of players can participate.
Such dilemmas are not confined to the conversion of chessboards to more players. Conversion to multiple player versions of other traditional two player games such as backgammon have encountered similar problems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,157 (Gilliland, 1985) and U.S. Pat. No. D. 360,232 (Ecer, 1995) both describe versions of three player backgammon whilst in U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,319 (Thomas et al., 1977), U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,458 (Lane et al. 1982) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,739 (Tobin et al., 1985) versions are disclosed for two to four players. U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,397 (Miller Jr. et al., 1994) proposes a game of backgammon using interchangeable surface inserts to suit the many variants of the game which exist. Although the problems were not so acute, larger backgammon boards designed to cater for up to four people inevitably required that not all of the board is used when fewer than the maximum permitted number sit down to play. The wasted space is not only aesthetically displeasing but if actually utilised means that games are of uncharacteristic length.
Despite the world-wide appeal of games like chess and the rise in popularity of multiple-player versions of this and other games, it is almost certainly the absence of a definitive board allowing for xe2x80x9cnaturalxe2x80x9d play that ensures this genre is not yet universally accepted. A single, versatile playing surface whose shape and area could be changed, either at the beginning or during the course of a game, would not only allow for the easy adaptation from two to more players but be the focus of a new generation of board games based on this principle.
Although many games seek to reproduce the strategy behind a real or imagined battle, the board game version is invariably played out on a flat, sometimes featureless, surface. It is impossible, when using a single board, to reproduce the effects of a varied terrain or an undulating landscape and then change this landscape to suit the parameters of a new battle at will. Increasingly board games are loosing ground to computer games that appear to offer limitless variety but at the cost of human interaction.
The exemplifying examples described hereinabove have been chosen for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention which allows many more traditional games to be modified, as well as providing a versatile games board system for games which have yet to be devised.
It is an object of the present invention to seek to alleviate the above disadvantages and to provide a board game apparatus having a playing surface and/or boundary shape which can be changed.
It is further an object of the invention to provide a board whose playing surface more accurately simulate the terrain encountered in a real or imagined battle.
It is a yet further object of the invention to provide a board that, for games such as chess, draughts (checkers) and backgammon, is easily configured for more than two players and which is proportional in playing area, compact, symmetrical and affords xe2x80x9cnaturalxe2x80x9d play.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a board game apparatus having a playing surface which comprises pairs of segments which are variously configurable so as to form a plurality of board layouts for two or more players, the pairs of segments being reflective pairs having identical included angles and edge lengths.
The provision of reflective segment pairs facilitates the simple configuration off a variety of board layouts within a single board game apparatus.
Preferably, the segments forming the pairs are quadrilaterals.
Advantageously, the segments are provided with a pattern or are otherwise suitably marked according to the requirements of a particular game.
Conveniently, the pattern or marking on a first one of a segment pair is the negative reflective image of the second segment of said pair.
It will be appreciated by the skilled reader that each one of a pair of board segments may be marked for a first game on one side (for example, chess) and for a second game on the other side (for example, backgammon).
In a preferred construction, the segments when assembled to form a playing surface for two, three or four players, provide a playing surface which is symmetrical in each of its multiple player configurations.
Advantageously, the area of the playing surface is proportional to the number of players for which the board layout is configured
In a preferred embodiment, the playing surface comprises four mirrored pairs of eight quadrilateral segments of which each segment encloses opposite angles of 165xc2x0 and 90xc2x0, and of 60xc2x0 and 45xc2x0, and the sides subtended by the angle of 165xc2x0 are of equal length.
In a further preferred embodiment, the playing surface comprises three mirrored pairs of six quadrilateral segments of which each segment encloses adjacent angles of 90xc2x0, defining two parallel sides and an intermediate perpendicular side, and further angles of 60xc2x0 and 120xc2x0, the perpendicular side having a length equal to half the combined length of the parallel sides.
Conveniently, securing means are provided to hold the segments in their various configurations during play.
Preferably, the securing means comprises a retaining ring or collar. Optionally, magnetic strips or elements are fixed to or imbedded into selected regions of the edges of each segment.
Advantageously, at least one of the segments includes raised lands to provide a playing surface having various levels or xe2x80x98terrainxe2x80x99 over which playing pieces operably move. More particularly, said at least one segment is variably profiled with crests and troughs to provide a playing surface having various levels or xe2x80x98terrainxe2x80x99 over which playing pieces operably move.
This arrangement facilitates the simulation of undulating terrain encountered in a real (historical) or imagined battle.
The shape of the resultant playing surfaces may take many forms and will depend upon the shape and number of the component segments. Each segment may be two-dimensional or have three dimensions; resulting in a board which, once assembled, forms a flat surface or a surface comprised of different levels over which the playing pieces move.
The surface of each segment may be left plain or alternatively printed or otherwise suitably marked with a pattern (such as with checks or a grid) or howsoever marked according to the requirements of the board game.
A plain board is advantageously provided with a surface from which non-permanent inks are erasable.
The segments may be loosely joined (abutted) or held in their various playing configurations by means of catches or grooves on the edge of each segment; contained in a tray or, as is preferred; the playing surface is secured within a restraining outer band, ring or collar which may itself be folded for storage.
The board playing surface is of a size suited to the requirements of a particular board game. It is optionally manufactured from a thick cardboard with a printed pattern affixed or made of any other suitable material such as paper, cloth, plastics, glass, metal, plastics, ceramic, stone, wood or a combination of these. Metal-faced boards allow for magnetised playing pieces whilst the provision of surfaces which can be wiped would facilitate the use of non-permanent marker pens (for use, for example, in war games).
The metamorphic, corollar, gameboard described herein should be regarded as including both the physical pieces which make up the board and the representations of those pieces in the visual media such as television, video and on computer. It should also be recognised that the corollar shapes of the resulting segmental board configurations (howsoever embodied but particularly in relation to the configurations and the design patterns illustrated herein) might also be represented without the capacity to be reconfigured (i.e. printed on a conventional square board or set in a table top) but only insofar as such representations might be used to play a board game.